Song of the Sequel
In the same vein of Disney doing straight-to-video sequels to their classics that were made 50 something years ago and don’t have half of the charm that the originals do, it looks like a company other than Disney is making a spin-off of sorts to a Disney classic.
Follow-Up to Rumored Song of the South "Sequel"
Ah yes, “Song of the South.” I never watched it myself as a child, but that’s only because it was truly hard to get one’s hands on. Depite the fact that it gave birth to the famous "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" song. That’s because the film has never been released on video in the U.S. You see, the film itself features a large group of black slaves living near a plantation in a southern state. And because the blacks in this film are singing and dancing at night and telling stories to each other, that must mean that this film is racist. There’s no chance that the blacks were singing and dancing to entertain themselves and escape from the hardships of their day, at least in the minds of people who think that this film is racist.
In short, this film has never had a video release in the United States because people think it is racist. And if that’s true, I must be racist for liking it.
Back in May 2004 I received a few reports that actor Wayne Brady was involved in doing some voice acting for the character Brer Bear in what was rumored to be a Song of the South sequel/remake of sorts. This follow-up is long overdue, but better late than never!
Alrighty then! Wayne Brady is involved in this one. I remember when Wayne Brady was in “Whose Line is it Anyway,” the improve show that he starred in with a bunch of other similarly talented comedians before he got too big for his britches and decided he deserved his own crappy talk show. But while he was on “Whose Line,” he never pulled any punches when it came to people of his own race and even some of the stereotypes that Hollywood has historically put on black people. He poked fun at James Brown, Michael Jackson, and Bill Cosby just to name a few. He also did an impression or two of the servant gal from “Gone with the Wind” who said “I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies, Miss Scarlett.” It’s interesting to think that the majority of Black U.S. citizens would probably be against this sort of humor, considering it an offensive stereotype. How do they feel about a black man wholeheartedly giving into these stereotypes for the sake of humor? After all, that’s why they created such stereotypes in the first place, for the sake of a laugh. And it was Black Americans who created them in the first place, only now most Black Americans seem to be against them.
As it turns out, Wayne Brady IS involved in vocal acting for a character named Brer Bear, but in a film completely independent from Disney. While the film has some Disney ties (Executive Producer is former Disney artist Tad Stones, Byron Vaughn is the Director, and Mary Thorne is the Line Producer), the film is "strictly through NBC Universal" according to Ruben Chavez, Lead Background Stylist of the Universal Cartoon Studios. The film about Brer Rabbit is going to be a direct-to-video release, the first of its kind for the studio that isn't based off of a feature film.
More in-depth discussion about this work in progress is available in the Tad Stones Interviews, which I highly recommend reading! It sounds very unique and I am looking forward to seeing it when it is released. Thanks to Ruben Chavez and Joe Strike for the additional information on this project!
I’ll only find it interesting if they try to pin someone for racism over this one.
Follow-Up to Rumored Song of the South "Sequel"
Ah yes, “Song of the South.” I never watched it myself as a child, but that’s only because it was truly hard to get one’s hands on. Depite the fact that it gave birth to the famous "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" song. That’s because the film has never been released on video in the U.S. You see, the film itself features a large group of black slaves living near a plantation in a southern state. And because the blacks in this film are singing and dancing at night and telling stories to each other, that must mean that this film is racist. There’s no chance that the blacks were singing and dancing to entertain themselves and escape from the hardships of their day, at least in the minds of people who think that this film is racist.
In short, this film has never had a video release in the United States because people think it is racist. And if that’s true, I must be racist for liking it.
Back in May 2004 I received a few reports that actor Wayne Brady was involved in doing some voice acting for the character Brer Bear in what was rumored to be a Song of the South sequel/remake of sorts. This follow-up is long overdue, but better late than never!
Alrighty then! Wayne Brady is involved in this one. I remember when Wayne Brady was in “Whose Line is it Anyway,” the improve show that he starred in with a bunch of other similarly talented comedians before he got too big for his britches and decided he deserved his own crappy talk show. But while he was on “Whose Line,” he never pulled any punches when it came to people of his own race and even some of the stereotypes that Hollywood has historically put on black people. He poked fun at James Brown, Michael Jackson, and Bill Cosby just to name a few. He also did an impression or two of the servant gal from “Gone with the Wind” who said “I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies, Miss Scarlett.” It’s interesting to think that the majority of Black U.S. citizens would probably be against this sort of humor, considering it an offensive stereotype. How do they feel about a black man wholeheartedly giving into these stereotypes for the sake of humor? After all, that’s why they created such stereotypes in the first place, for the sake of a laugh. And it was Black Americans who created them in the first place, only now most Black Americans seem to be against them.
As it turns out, Wayne Brady IS involved in vocal acting for a character named Brer Bear, but in a film completely independent from Disney. While the film has some Disney ties (Executive Producer is former Disney artist Tad Stones, Byron Vaughn is the Director, and Mary Thorne is the Line Producer), the film is "strictly through NBC Universal" according to Ruben Chavez, Lead Background Stylist of the Universal Cartoon Studios. The film about Brer Rabbit is going to be a direct-to-video release, the first of its kind for the studio that isn't based off of a feature film.
More in-depth discussion about this work in progress is available in the Tad Stones Interviews, which I highly recommend reading! It sounds very unique and I am looking forward to seeing it when it is released. Thanks to Ruben Chavez and Joe Strike for the additional information on this project!
I’ll only find it interesting if they try to pin someone for racism over this one.
posted by Jaimetud at 6:56 PM
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